1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of devices and methods for chemical synthesis, analysis, and biological screening. More particularly, the present invention relates to a new and improved apparatus for high-throughput combinatorial synthesis of organic molecules, particularly nucleic acids.
2. Description of Related Art
Solid-phase synthesis of organic molecules is the method of choice for preparation of libraries and compound megaarrays, which are currently being applied for screening in the quest to find new drugs or pharmaceutical lead compounds, i.e., compounds which exhibit a particular biological activity of pharmaceutical interest. These leads can serve as a starting point for the selection and synthesis of a drug compound, which in addition to the particular biological activity of interest has pharmacologic and toxicologic properties suitable for administration to animals, including humans.
Several designs of instruments for combinatorial synthesis utilizing solid-phase synthesis are known. An exemplar of the prior art is U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,202,418 and 5,338,831, to Lebl et al., which each describe a method of performing multiple synthesis of peptides on a solid carrier. U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,585 to Lebl et al. describes an apparatus for multiple syntheses of peptides on solid support. U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,755 to Lebl, et al. describes an apparatus and a method for combinatorial chemistry synthesis. U.S. Pat. No. 6,121,054 to Lebl, corresponding to PCT International Publication No. WO00/25470, shows a method for separation of liquid and solid-phases for solid-phase organic synthesis. The entire contents of the above patents are incorporated herein by this reference.
Liquid removal by centrifugation was described and is the subject of several publications. See Christian Birr, Aspects of the Merrified Peptide Synthesis (Springer-Verlag, New York 1978; German Patent Application P 20 17351.7, G. 70 13256.8, 1970. These references describe the use of centrifugation for liquid removal from slurry of solid-phase particles in a concentric vessel equipped with a filtration material in its perimeter and spun around its axis.